Historically, I have ignored most of the Beach Boys’ pre-Pet Sounds output, regarding it as juvenile and cheap pop. However, the Endless Summer compilation I recently picked up has opened my eyes a little to the genius in potentia resting in the group (read: Brian Wilson).
It’d be incredibly easy to write DIIV off as too trendy to be worthwhile. After all, their formula of Real Estate + Joy Division x Krautrock is tailor-made for Pitchfork’s Best New Music designation. Pitchfork also featured them in their Rising column when their name was still Dive, months before they had even finished this, their first LP. And inevitably, when this album finally dropped, the hype Pitchfork created around them culminated with the coveted “Best New Album” stamp on the top of the review (a portion of that review was featured on one of the stickers on the shrink wrap around the record when I bought it).
After the demise of the Smile sessions and the varying levels of commercial and critical success of the albums that followed, Brian Wilson shrank behind the rest of the band members, letting De Facto Front Man Mike Love lead the group in a less ambitious, more commercially viable direction. Then in the wake of their most poorly received album ever, they hired a new manager who encouraged Brian to take back his role as band leader. He was reluctant, but his brother, Carl, who shared his artistic leanings, took the role. The result was Surf’s Up, considered by many to be a return to greatness.